Antigua’s Cruise Tourism Boss Upbeat on Upcoming Winter Season

09 September 2011 5:32pm

Antigua’s leading cruise tourism official Nathan Dundas is hoping that “there’ll be reason enough for us to smile for the winter season.” Dundas, who heads the Antigua & Barbuda Cruise Tourism Association, is optimistic that the sector will bounce back after a rather rough summer period.

Speaking on local OBSERVER Radio’s OBSERVER AM, he has described the 2011 summer season as “what is probably our worst summer season for many, many years.”

According Dundas, the past few months were very difficult for many of the stakeholders in the industry, as many were forced to lay off staff. “Many of us struggled very, very much to survive during the summer, barely holding on to some staff … it has been a difficult period,” he said.

Dundas also pointed to the effects of the hurricane season on cruise tourism in Antigua and the rest of the Caribbean, citing diversions that took place, with some cruise ships having to divert from the Bahamas to Jamaica.

And referring to what he insisted was a growing trend of cruise ships heading for European shores during the summer, he called on governments in the region to engage more with the sector.

Dundas argued that that was necessary to help the cruise tourism destinations like Antigua better weather an increasingly difficult climate. Asked why the cruise lines were turning away from the Caribbean during the summer, the tourism official said that these companies were “in the business to make money and they generally follow where they feel that the money pattern is.”

“They are saying to the Caribbean governments and Caribbean people, we’re making much more money in Europe during the summer months,” Dundas said, explaining that the cruise companies were focusing on high passenger yield. He wants the regional governments and the Caribbean Tourism Organization to address those problems to keep cruise tourism sustainable in the region.